From this year's Chick-fil-A calendar, The Bovines in Blue:

Baloney Vice
In the high-stakes game of international beef trafficking, all roads lead through Baloney Beach. But thanks to mulleted mooers Ronny Brisquet and Rafael de Vaca, those days are coming to an end. Wearing an array of pastels and polyester, these undercover cows will do anything to bust crime chef Fatty Empanada.

Hey, kids. We're home. We had the most amazing time in Glacier National Park. Lots of photos and a trip diary to come soon. Lots of laundry and unpacking to do in the meantime.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 174

Click here for the entry form.

This is last week's round of the Name That Movie Contest, which I actually managed to set up before we left. It's still open.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 175

Click here for the entry form.

This is this week's round of the Name That Movie Contest. There are still several other rounds of the movie contest still open. Check them out and submit a guess!

According to Mr Moo, Miss Josie was a totally annoying brat last night, as per usual on our first night home after a vacation. Apparently, she was up and down off the bed about a million times and spent a good portion of the night sitting on the floor crying for no reason. He didn't sleep well because he got up to deal with her every time. I, on the other hand, was so beyond tired I slept like a corpse and didn't hear a thing. I think I woke up once because Mr Moo was swearing at the cat, not because the cat was making noise. It's so good to be home and sleeping in my own bed again.

Just tried calling the avian hospital to find out what's going on with Stuka, but no one answered the phone. We called from a payphone last Tuesday to check on him. At the time, he was doing okay. He wasn't acting as sick as he had been, but he hadn't gained any weight back either. If you recall, if a parakeet gets below 27g, they consider them too ill to recover and they euthanize. Stuka was right at 27g when we left. It's been a week since we were last able to get any status. At this point, I don't even know if he's alive or not because they haven't been open since we got back. The hospital isn't ever open on Sundays and yesterday was a holiday. Going to try calling again now.

EDIT: Still no answer. They're definitely open, but everyone is away from the front desk at the moment. I'll keep trying.

Good news! Stuka is alive and well! Just got off the phone with one of the vet techs. She weighed Stuka on Sunday and he's up to 30g. WOOT! Little fatty. :-) She said he is talking/screaming a lot, very active and fighting back something fierce when they try to pick him up. My response: "Yeah, if he's being a complete pain in the butt, he's definitely feeling better." So, next step is working out when to go pick him up. Some friends of ours are on a cross-country road trip at the moment and are scheduled to arrive in Portland sometime this afternoon. I'm worried, if I leave, they'll show up two seconds later. Isn't that how it always goes? We'll get it sorted somehow and get the monster home as soon as possible. I'm just so excited he's recovered! Squeee!

Stuka, the Destroyer (taken before we left on vacation)

Some dear friends of ours from New York are in town this evening. They're on a whirlwind road trip across and around the country, and made it to Portland today. We're going out to dinner and spending time with them tonight because they're back on the road tomorrow. I think they're heading to California next. They're heading to eastern Oregon next. I'm expecting them to be at the front door in the next 30-45 minutes. We haven't seen them in quite some time so I'm excited!

EDIT: Obligatory group shot:

Mr Moo, me, Anne and Dave.

Guess who's home.

He looks so much better. He still has periods when he fluffs up a little still, but, for the most part, all of that and the swelling are pretty much gone. He's also very vocal and cranky, which are the best indicators that he's back to normal. Mr Moo's dad works just down the road from the avian hospital. He picked him up on his way home from work last night. After our company left, I drove over to their house to collect the raptor. He came home with some meds and we need to get him a heat lamp, but everyone at the vet's office thinks he's going to be fine and with us for some time yet. Hard to believe we were ready to put a needle in him 10 days ago.

Note to self: Accept it. Your vacation is over. You are back to sitting in a desk chair all day long. You are no longer hiking 12-15 miles per day and need to stop eating like you are. Your giant butt implores you.

Over the past few weeks, we've been asked many times where we came up with "Stuka" as a name for the winged beast so I thought I'd make a post to explain it. For starters, it's a German word and pronounced Shtoo-ka. When we first brought him home from the pet store and he was only about two months old, one of Stuka's favorite pastimes was climbing to the highest perch in the cage and jumping off. Climb, jump, repeat. Ah, the silliness of youth, even in birds. Since he looked and acted like a little dive bomber, we decided to name him after one. Mr Moo, who is very interested in all things aeronautic and having to do with World War II, came up with the name. From the Wikipedia entry:

The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka (from Sturzkampfflugzeug) was a two-seat (pilot and rear gunner) German ground-attack aircraft. Designed by Hermann Pohlmann, the Stuka first flew in 1935 and made its combat debut in 1936 as part of the Luftwaffe's Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War. The aircraft was easily recognizable by its inverted gull wings, fixed spatted undercarriage and its infamous Jericho-Trompete ("Jericho Trumpet") wailing siren, becoming the propaganda symbol of German air power and the Blitzkrieg victories of 1939-1942.

There you go. He's named after a plane. And, if you've ever met him and know how he behaves, you understand why naming him after a Nazi plane is more than appropriate. His full name is Sturzkampfflugzeug, which literally translates as "dive bomber" and is shortened to just Stuka.

That kind of looks like a parakeet, doesn't it?

This is the parakeet version of "DO NOT WANT!!!"

One of the most important things we have to do for Stuka to aid in his recovery is keep him warm. I ordered a heat lamp for him online, but it won't be here until next week. In the meantime, he's staying here in the office with me and we're keeping the temperature right at 80F/27C. Great for the bird. Not so great for me. It's going to be hot in Portland today and I get to cook in my greenhouse of an office. Joy. Since he's not supposed to be exposed to drafts of any kind, I shouldn't even turn the fan on, never mind the a/c. However, if it starts creeping towards 90 degrees in here this afternoon, I won't have much choice. Can't let us all die of heat stroke.

Every day, the realization that my cat is beyond geriatric sinks in a little more. That's her lying on the window seat checking out the living, breathing, jumping, squawking bird out of its cage less than two feet away from her.

So, what happened right after I took this photo? Did she get up and try to eat the bird? Chase it, maybe? Try to play with it at least? Nope. She stayed right where she was, put her head down and went to sleep.

Don't even try to tell me you wouldn't have pulled it, too.

There are police swarming all around my house at the moment. There was a single car accident on the main road that runs next to ours and the driver bailed. Either he was drunk or the car was stolen because there's about a hundred cops and the K-9 unit out looking for him. I heard the accident happen. I got caught up watching a documentary about 9/11 until 0300. I had just fallen asleep when I heard a really loud BANG! at about 0310. I immediately thought Stuka's cage had fallen over or something. I did a quick walk around the house to check on everyone. Stuka was fine. Josie was sound asleep in her bed. And Mr Moo was sawing logs on the couch like I left him earlier tonight. I took a peek out back to see if maybe the skunk was getting into trouble on the patio, but the motion light wasn't on and I didn't see anything awry.

A few minutes after crawling back into bed, I heard the first of the sirens. Within minutes, there were at least four police cars on the street. That's when I finally noticed the car crashed and turned sideways in the middle of it. Since there are no street lights in that one section, I hadn't seen it before. The police started shining flashlights over the brick wall into the green space behind our house and I could see they had the dog ready to go. I could hear them trying to sort how the heck to get themselves and the dog on the other side since the gate is locked. I shouted out to them from the window that they could come around to our yard to get in because we don't have a fence. Within a few seconds, the dog and several officers were tearing through our yard. The went all around the pond area, along the far side and disappeared up the hill. Since the motion light, which is incredibly sensitive, hadn't turned on, I knew the perp hadn't come by on our side of the pond.

Police cars keep driving up then suddenly zooming off so they must still be searching. There's one officer documenting the accident and taking photos. They're probably going to be out there for quite a while.

They got him! After making sure all of the downstairs windows and doors were securely closed and locked, Mr Moo went back to sleep on the couch since it's about 15 degrees cooler down there. I came back upstairs and left the bedroom window open so I could hear if anything new developed. Just a few minutes ago, I could hear voices approaching and saw flashlights coming back down the hill towards the pond area. It was two officers and the dog. Since they were coming down on our side of the pond and were close, I asked out the window if they caught the guy and they said they had. Then they very politely asked if they could cut back through the yard to get out. Of course I told them they could and also warned them to watch out for the skunk. That's all I need - two cops getting sprayed by a skunk in my yard. Wouldn't that be buckets of fun?

There are now seven officers standing around the wrecked car discussing what went down and looking inside it. I can't hear much, but I did hear one of them say he didn't care about the crash and saw another one searching near the wall and in the bushes, which leads me to believe there might be drugs involved. I'll have to watch the arrest logs and see if I can figure out exactly what happened.

A tow truck has finally showed up. Guess they'll be wrapping up now.

I am rocking the most amazing watch tan ever right now.

Seriously, that's my arm, not a bracelet. My farmer tan got started when we were at Crater Lake and darkened up a lot while we were at Glacier. My arms are so dark compared to the rest of me at the moment, they look like they belong on another person. I also have an awful raccoon tan from my sunglasses, but I won't be posting photos of that, thankyouverymuch. We leave for Arizona in just over two weeks. Maybe I can even things out a bit then.

Because the world can always use more 'keet, I give you Stuka, Destroyer of Worlds...

...on his playpen no less. It makes him so much more menacing, doesn't it? :-) Since it was getting too hot to sustain life in here, I moved Stuka into the guest room yesterday afternoon and finally turned on the a/c. I put him in front of an open window in the other room and closed the door. With the warm temps we're having, the room stayed a nice toasty 83F/28C for him. He's in there again today because I've got a mountain of work to get done today and I can't be cooking my brain. Not that there's a whole lot left to cook these days.

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 176

Click here for the entry form.

There are several other rounds of the movie contest still open. You can find them on the Name That Movie Contest page of my website under "Open Rounds".

Montana - August 2009 - Glacier National Park

One of the first things you receive upon arriving at Glacier National Park is one of these brochures:

Basically, it's the Idiot's Guide to Not Getting Eaten. We also learned that not enough people actually read the thing because we saw a whole lot of stupid happening as the week wore on.

The top three items to pack when hiking in Glacier are 1. water 2. food 3. bear spray. We asked a ranger her thoughts about the bear spray. She said, if we stayed on the more popular trails and made lots of noise, the likelihood of needing it was very small and it was totally up to us if we wanted to get some. Given that it costs almost $50 for a single can, we weren't sure whether or not to buy it. It didn't take us long to make a decision. Less than an hour after arriving at the park, we saw this:

It's a black bear. He was way off on the side of the road (loving the 12x zoom on my new camera!) heading towards the lake. Without a moment's hesitation, we checked into our hotel, went to the gift shop and bought this:

We even got a free lesson from the cashier on how/when to use/not use it (ie, don't bother if you're downwind unless you really like being temporarily blind). Fortunately, even though we saw several more bears and practically tripped over a very large moose, we never had to use the spray.

Montana - August 2009

One thing we've been asked a lot since returning from our trip has been, "How was the train ride?"

As you may recall, we rode in a sleeper car both to and from Montana. Our answer to the question: It was fantastic and sucked all at the same time. To elaborate a little, the ride itself was great. While our room wasn't huge, we definitely had a whole lot more space than we would have had on an airplane.

Our seats faced each other. There were several lights, outlets and a small table for us to share. We were able to use our laptops, play cards and have dinner (meals are included with a sleeper car ticket) without elbowing each other to death.

It was quite nice and we really enjoyed that part. The awful part was when it was time to sleep. It's very loud and bumpy, and the bunks aren't the most comfortable things in the world. I don't think either of us got more than a few hours of sleep on either leg of the trip. As miserable as the sleeping conditions were, I think I'd still recommend everyone travel by sleeper car at least once in their life just to say they've done it. Just don't forget your earplugs and sleep mask.

Took Josie to see the vet yesterday. In the spring, when we last tested her kidney values, she had a bladder infection, which the doctor was concerned was throwing off the readings. We decided to run them again after six months or so, which would be now. And, since she's a geriatric kitty, she goes for a physical every six months instead of a year, too. He was very happy with her overall health. Aside from her deafness and arthritis, he feels she's in fantastic shape for a nearly 18 year old cat. He's amazed at how good her teeth are doing and was even more thrilled that we've managed to put some weight on her. He said her kidneys felt about the same as last time. They're very small now (about half the size they should be) because they're failing, but as long as we can continue to maintain their size, she'll be okay.

He drew blood and urine to test while we were there and called this afternoon with the results. Good news is the kidney values, for the most part, only got a tiny bit worse. Bad news is she has yet another bladder infection. Cats with kidney failure are very susceptible to infections like this so it's not a total shocker. However, he is growing concerned there may be something else going on that's causing them due to the frequency. There's a chance she might have a bladder stone or a polyp somewhere and the infections are secondary. The only way to know for sure is with an ultrasound. If we hadn't just spent the Gross National Product of a small island nation keeping the parakeet alive, this would be a no-brainer. I'd have her in there immediately. However, we did just spend a fortune and Mr Moo is not quite ready to lay out another wad of cash on vet bills just yet. Our biggest concern is the ultrasound will show that it is a stone or a polyp, which, if either one is the case, will mean surgery. The cost for that will be substantial and, regardless of the cost, I'm not even sure I would agree to it anyway. Surgery is risky business for a cat her age. The anesthesia alone could kill her. So, do we go through the trouble of an ultrasound if we know we won't ultimately pursue surgery? We're going to discuss it some more and make a decision in the next day or so. In the meantime, Miss Josie gets to enjoy another 10 day round of antibiotics. Yipee!

Had a fitting with Beast tonight. I'm making costumes for a Beauty and the Beast wedding, remember? I made a muslin mock-up of his coat, which we fitted. Since he wasn't wearing the actual shirt and because there are still quite a few changes to be made to the pattern, he's going to come back on Sunday for a second muslin fitting. Some may think it's a waste of time, but I would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to fitting. Once the fashion fabric is cut, there's no going back so I want to be sure everything fits just right. It's going to be a very busy weekend.

Montana - August 2009 - Glacier National Park

Swiftcurrent Lake Loop Trail.

Montana - August 2009 - Glacier National Park

Yes, Virginia, that is a grizzly bear.

Granted, he was nearly two miles away, which explains the completely crap photo, but a park ranger confirmed it was indeed a male grizzly. It also accounts for all of the trail closures on that side of the mountain for the week.

Montana - August 2009 - Glacier National Park

I love bugs. I love furry things. When you combine the two together, you get the cutest thing ever - fuzzy caterpillar!!!

I wanted to take him home, but Mr Moo wouldn't let me.

Montana - August 2009 - Glacier National Park

The day after we arrived in Montana, my good friend, Gordo, and his lovely wife, Maureen, drove all the way down from Calgary in Canada to spend an afternoon with us.

I know it's not a good photo, but it's the only one I have of the four of us. After a nice lunch and pie (YUM!) at the Park Cafe in St Mary, we headed into the park. We drove along the Going to the Sun Road, stopping at the overlooks that struck our fancy, and eventually made it to the Logan Pass Visitor Center. It was a fun afternoon and could only have been better if we had had more time together.

Montana - August 2009 - Glacier National Park

Animals!

I see you!

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 177

Click here for the entry form.

There are several other rounds of the movie contest still open. You can find them on the Name That Movie Contest page of my website under "Open Rounds".

Got an interesting phone call today. From what I gathered, the woman who called is unemployed, looking for work and has a tiny bit of experience sewing. Someone has asked her to make an entire Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz costume - blouse, dress and petticoat. She sounds desperate for some income and wants to do it. The problem is the customer, who is willing to pay for the materials, wants to give her $25 for the labor. Incredulous, I asked, "$25? Does she mean per hour?" And the answer was "no". That's all she wants to pay total for labor. At this point, I nearly swallowed my tongue trying to not laugh out loud. If this customer had come to me, $25 would barely get her a consultation appointment, never mind any actual sewing. I felt really bad for the woman who called me. She wanted to know if this was reasonable and I had to be honest with her. She would be making pennies per hour and this customer would be, for all intents and purposes, stealing from her. She was discouraged, but I wasn't going to lie to her. Of course, she used the opportunity to segue into asking me for a job, which I declined. If this was the ultimate purpose behind your phone call, just come out with it from the start. Don't run me around in chatty circles about how you're willing to give your work away first. It doesn't do you any favors.

Mr Moo went shopping on Saturday and look what "accidentally" fell into his bag.

Squeee! I haven't had a chance to watch it yet though. I'm waiting for the right time so I can watch it uninterrupted without falling asleep. Cannot wait!

When I started sneezing and my nose started dripping last night, I immediately chalked it up to allergies. When I woke up this morning with lungs full of crud, coughing like a two pack a day smoker and glands swollen like watermelons, I thought, "Allergies? Maybe not so much." I cannot be getting sick right now. I've got too much work to do!

It's a new day and I'm still feeling like crap. Sigh. I'm sneezing and my nose is running a bit, but, for the most part, it's all settled in my chest. I can't take a deep breath without hacking. And, of course, lying down makes it a million times worse so sleeping last night was pretty much out of the question. I need to get some more sleep though or I'm going to be completely useless today. I'll probably head back to bed in a bit and try propping myself up with pillows. This stinks.

I'm living every dressmaker's dream at the moment. I went to cut out one of my client's garments a few minutes ago and there isn't enough fabric. Isn't that fantastic? I couldn't be more thrilled!

Not.

On a happier note, I did manage to get a few more hours sleep this morning, which was a big help. I'm still far from 100% better, but I'm no longer feeling like walking death at least. My cough has already become productive, which is a good indicator that I'm on the mend. Hopefully, it won't linger and I'll be over this plague sooner rather than later.

My new most favorite shirt:

For those who were worried, fret not! I'm still alive. Still feeling like crap, but alive. My body is doing everything it can to get the crud out of my lungs, which means my cough has gotten so heavy I sound like I have tuberculosis or something. However, I'm looking at the bright side - productive cough means I'm getting better. Well, that's what I'm telling myself anyway.

I wish I didn't sound so awful. I have to go to the fabric store for a few things this afternoon and I'm sure people are going to be fleeing from me for fear I have H1N1. I'll just have to make it quick and get out of there as fast as I can before a stampede ensues.

Montana - August 2009 - Glacier National Park

Ptarmigan Tunnel Hike

9 hours. 12.5 miles. 2300 feet elevation gain. It was brutal, but well worth it. We set out early in the morning.

Just like every other trail in the park, there was plenty of warning about bears.

Fortunately, we didn't have close encounters with any on this hike. We did see evidence they had been in the area though.

Yes, kids, that's bear scat (aka poop). Looked like he had had his fill of berries and had been on the trail sometime during the night before. The rangers do a very good job of tracking where the bears are at and keeping people away from them. Trails, like this side trail we passed, get closed at a moment's notice when bears are spotted.

You can't be too careful in bear-filled forests.

Montana - August 2009 - Glacier National Park

These photos are from the beginning of our Ptarmigan Tunnel hike. We did this hike on the day we had planned to hike the Highline Trail, over the Continental Divide and down into Swiftcurrent Pass. However, because of some really, really stupid people who thought it would be fun to approach a bear and got caught by a park ranger, the trail into Swiftcurrent Pass was closed almost the entire week we were in the park. In some respects, I'm almost glad it happened because we got to do this hike, which we weren't planning to do, instead and we really enjoyed it. While we weren't allowed to hike in it, we got some fantastic views of Swiftcurrent Pass from this trail.

When you're hiking, it's important to turn around once in a while and look back from whence you came, especially if you're on a trail that loops rather than returns. Even when on a return, I still like to look back because the light will be different later in the day.

Looking forward is good, too. Heck, when you're in Glacier, there really isn't a bad place to look. The views are fantastic in all directions. This is Mount Wilbur with part of the arete surrounding the Iceberg Lake cirque behind it.

We debated detouring over to Iceberg Lake, which would have been a additional 5 miles, but ultimately decided to save our legs and focus on the tunnel. It's good thing we did because I had nothing left at the end of the day. We saw lots of animals while in the park, including a lot of insects.

We also came across this man-eating, venom-spitting monster.

I was tempted to step on it, but I'm honoring our treaty. As long as they stay out of my house, they can live.

I'm a crazy rabid squirrel!

Can I have a cookie?

"NAME THAT MOVIE" CONTEST - 178

Click here for the entry form.

There are several other rounds of the movie contest still open. You can find them on the Name That Movie Contest page of my website under "Open Rounds".

What a long awful weekend. I spent most of it fighting off a migraine and not getting any work done. I'm way behind schedule now. I wanted to have Beast's coat pretty much done by now and it's not even cut out yet. I'll give you three guesses what I'll be doing today. I need to get it close to done today because we're leaving for Arizona on Wednesday and won't be back until Monday night. I have to focus on the other projects for this wedding upon our return so I really need to have Beast's costume wrapped up before we go. At least my head is feeling better this morning. ((knocks on wood))

Holy crap. We're going to Arizona tomorrow. Where the heck has September gone? I'm still recovering from our trip to Montana. In the future, I will know not to schedule any of our trips this close together again. It's exhausting.

It's not as far along as I would like it to be, but I made good progress on Beast's coat last night.

Sorry about the crappy photo. It's all I've got right now. I was too busy to take any yesterday. I'll try to get at least a few taken today.

Game plan for the rest of today consists of getting the lining put in the coat, cleaning the fish tank and packing for our trip. If anything else gets done, it will be a miracle bonus. Since it will be a relatively short vacation and we'll be staying in an actual city this time, packing is going to be minimal, for a blessed change. Unlike other trips, where we've stayed in cabins in the literal middle of nowhere, we'll be approximately three minutes down the road from a shopping mall this time. I won't need to pack the entire house. If we forget anything important, we'll just buy it.

For those unaware, it's my birthday (a major one, ugh) on Sunday, which is the reason for this trip. We'll be staying in Tucson and spending our days in Saguaro National Park. My sister and BIL will be joining us. This is our first vacation together where we haven't been at one or the other's house. I'm looking forward to seeing them both. Should be lots of fun!

Well, I didn't get any real work done yesterday, but I did get the house ready and the fish tank cleaned. I also got a bunch of stuff out to be packed. It's all still progress. We have to be walking out the door by 1400 today. Mr Moo has gone to work and insists he'll be home by noon. Will be interesting to see if that actually happens.

Are you kidding me? Just when I thought we were going to go on a vacation without someone getting or being sick for the very first time in history, Dr Jones, our betta, isn't feeling well. He's not eating. Normally, he eats six pellets every morning without issue. Today, I think he ate one. He puts others in his mouth, but spits them right out again. He's swimming around and acting just fine so I have no idea what's going on with him. I know bettas can get constipated. I gave him a tiny bit of a pea last night to see if that will help get things moving and make him feel better. There isn't much we can for him right now. If he can manage to survive through the weekend, I'll put him in the hospital tank and treat him with a round of antibiotics when we get back. Until then, we just have to hope for the best. Hang in there, Dr Jones.

Leaving for the airport in a few minutes. Have a good weekend, fishies! See you on Monday.

We're at the airport waiting for our flight to start boarding. I forgot there is free wireless internet here. I'm fairly certain we'll have internet everywhere we go on this trip so, hopefully, I'll be able to make fairly regular updates.

Mr Moo forgot to put his pocket knife in one of the checked bags and nearly had it confiscated again. Fortunately, PDX has a kiosk where you can mail contraband back to yourself. Pocket knife is now in the mail and on its way back to our house. My knife is in my suitcase so we won't be totally knife-less this trip. You never know when you'll have to fight off attack scorpions or something.

We are in the air and on our way. I'm still kind of in shock that we arrived at the airport, checked out bags, went through security and boarded our plane without coming across a single person we wanted to smite. Normally, there's at least one person saying/doing something incredibly stupid or acting all entitled and whining. We should travel on Wednesday afternoons more often.

Our flight to Phoenix is going to be a quick one - just over two hours. It was schedule to be 2 hours 40 minutes, but I guess we've got a good tailwind going on. I'm all for getting in a bit early because we still have a two hour drive to Tucson to do once we land. We could have flown all the way to Tucson, but we would have had to layover and change planes in Phoenix. Since that would have taken an additional three hours or so, we decided to abandon ship there and do the drive ourselves.

Chillin' on the plane with my Bose noise-canceling headphones and my netbook.

Driving from Phoenix to Tucson.